1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile device technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to a navigation service system and method using a mobile device equipped with a navigation widget.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile device, also known as a portable device, a handheld device and the like, is a pocket-sized computing device typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard (often referred to as a keypad). Many different types of mobile devices, such as a mobile communication device, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and a smart phone, are widely used today. Such mobile devices not only provide a voice call, a video call, and a Short Message Service (SMS), but also offer a variety of useful applications (e.g., a schedule manager, games and the like). More particularly, some recently launched portable devices have a navigation function that provides travel or traffic guide path based on location information.
A conventional navigation service system using a mobile device has an embedded map that has already been stored in the device. Therefore, when a navigation service is activated, the mobile device retrieves map data in connection with current location information from its own storage and displays retrieved map data on a screen.
The quantity of such map data is large, so the mobile device needs a large storage capacity to store the map data. Also, since map data should be updated frequently to reflect the newest data, a user often suffers great inconvenience in use. In addition, in order to use a navigation service system in foreign countries, a user has to additionally download map data related to those countries.
Furthermore, a conventional navigation service system uses limited map data provided by a navigation service provider or a mobile device manufacturer. Therefore, a user is restricted in selection of map data and has difficulty in reflecting desired map data to a navigation service system.
Moreover, a navigation program used in a conventional navigation service system has a slower loading time because of its large size and requires a large amount of resource for running.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved navigation service technology that requires no embedded map, allows a user to reflect desired map data, and reduces a loading time.